From its inception, the FC9 has been envisioned to provide new levels of compatibility and performance, with a design that is nothing short of stunning. The all aluminium sandblasted finish houses a multitude of features such as Heatpipe Direct Touch cooling, universal optical drive eject button and a pivoting drive cage that makes assembly easier than ever.

Many home theatre chassis are finished with the brushed aluminium effect, but the FC9 is not like other home theatre chassis. Streacom have finished the FC9 in a very fine shot-blasted finish which gives an elegant pitted look to the aluminium rather than a lined look which brushing produces. It is all down to personal preference as to which looks better but one advantage that a shot blasted finish has over a brushed finish is that it does not leave visible fingerprints behind as brushed aluminium finishes often does.

The FC9 Alpha takes all the great features of the original FC9 and improves upon them with small yet important changes. The drive tray has been re-design with variable drive positions, better airflow and now utilises the new optical drive tray for easier installation and adjustment. The bottom panel has been updated with improved venting and more drive mounting locations, and USB ports have now been placed on both of the side panels for easier access and balance.

As with all Alpha cases, Streacom have improved all tolerances, introduced a new refined sandblast finish, USB3.0 is native, the power LED is now a subtle pure white and the heatpipes and mounts have been upgraded. All these updates have been made whilst maintaining the original design ethos of crafting a work of art that beautifully combines form and function.

Recommended Components

Streacom have a comprehensive build guide that provides general tips and suggestions on what should be considered when building in a Streacom case and how to achieve the best results.

Motherboard and CPU - The FC9 is compatible with Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX. Depending which motherboard you opt for will determine how many HDD/SSDs can be installed (more info on this below) and which CPU to use. The case is capable of cooling virtually all CPUs that have a TDP of 95W or lower.

One important point to note when selecting a motherboard is that the board must not have the 24-pin ATX connector (shown in the red shaded section in the image below) or any tall heatsinks are located in this area otherwise the Nano-PSU adapter may obstruct the heatpipes, preventing the CPU block from being fitted correctly.

Note: Although it is stated that the overall cooling ability of the case is 95w we strongly advise using a processor with a TDP of 65W or lower to avoid using too much power than the Nano-PSU can provide. We have a selection of Intel LGA1155 CPUs available that produce 65W or lower which can be found here.

To increase compatibility Streacom have a CPU Cooler Riser that raises the CPU heatpipes above conflicting components. The riser gives the included heatpipe solution an additional 32mm of clearance above the CPU.

Power Supply - We recommend using a fanless Nano PSU which can provide up to 150W of power. This is more than enough to power a CPU that has a TDP of 65W along with suitable peripherals. It is recommended not to overload the number of peripherals; two HDDs (or one SSD and one HDD), one optical drive, a TV tuner and obviously a motherboard should not be a problem for this miniature PSU.

Alternatively, Streacom now has available a 240W Internal fanless PSU, the ST-ZF240. That extra 90W (compared to the Nano-PSU) will allow for even more drives to be connected to the system or you may want to opt for a CPU that has a maximum TDP of 95W for greater performance. The ZF240 works best when installed into the chassis.

Optical Drive - The FC9 uses a new universal eject mechanism so it will work with any slot loading laptop drive regardless of where the eject button is located on the front of the drive. Streacom have already sourced the perfect drives for these cases, take a look at the available drives here.

Remote Control - If you wish to take control of the PC with the use of a remote control, then look no further than the Streacom Flirc IR receiver. It is designed to fit all Streacom chassis and will work with virtually any remote control. If you don't have a remote then you may want to consider this.

Thermal Paste - These cases are supplied with thermal paste.

SSD/Hard Disk Drives - The FC9 cases can house many drive combinations depending on which size motherboard is fitted or which PSU is used. The instructions from Streacom's website go through in detail the options that are available. It is highly recommended that you take a look at their instructions, pages 12, 13 and 14 detail the drive options.